ps, the Eighteenth and the Third Brandenburgers, which had
suffered so severely at Douaumont that they had been relegated to the
rear. It was estimated by the neutral military critic, Colonel Feyler,
that the first of these corps had lost 17,000 men and the second
22,000. After the fight in which they had been so hard hit the two
corps had spent seven weeks resting and were now drawn again into the
battle. Both were in action in the evening of April 30, 1916, the
Third north of Mort Homme and the Eighteenth at Cumieres.

According to the evidence given by German prisoners, the Third Corps
again received heavy punishment. Of one regiment, the Sixty-fourth,
only a remnant survived, and one battalion lost nearly a hundred men
during the first attack.

The Eighteenth Corps of Brandenburgers succeeded in penetrating one
point in the French lines, but a French regiment rushed the trench
with fixed bayonets and destroyed or captured all the Germans in
occupation.

Some futile attempts were made by the Germans to retrieve their
failure, but the French firmly maintained their positions.

In the evening of May 1, 1916, the French again assumed the offensive
and successfully stormed a 500-yard sector south of Douaumont. On the
front northwest of Mort Homme, between Hills 295 and 265, the French
made a brilliant attack in the evening of May 3, 1916, which was
entirely successful, the Germans being pushed back beyond the line
they had won early in March, 1916.

The position of the French front on May 5, 1916, was as follows: It
was bounded by a line that ran through Pepper Hill, Hardaumont Wood,
the ravine to the southwest of the village of Douaumont, Douaumont
plateau to the south, and a few hundred yards from the fort, the
northern edge of Caillette Wood, the ravine and village of Vaux, and
the slopes of the fortress of Vaux.

On May 5, 1916, this line was on the whole intact. Only in one place
had the Germans gained a small advance; they had captured Vaux
village, which consisted of a single street, but the French occupied
the slopes near by that commanded the place.

There was no change on the French line on the left bank, where the
character of the ground was favorable for defense. For two months the
French line had remained fixed on Hill 304 and on Mort Homme. Only the
covering line, which extended from the wood of Avocourt to the Meuse
along the slopes of Haucourt, the bed of Forges Brook, and the crests
north of Cum